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Monday, 17 April 2017

A Visit to the Lavender Line, and a Visitor to the Bluebell Railway

Looking for a day out on a bank holiday we decided to visit the Lavender Line at Isfield, near Uckfield. This is a small preservation group with a nicely restored station and about a mile of track. though normally they only run on Sundays, which is rarely convenient for us.

Trains were running every half hour, alternating between steam and diesel. The steam was this nice Bagnall, towing a single trailer car from a DMU. It looked an odd combination, but since there is no run-round loop trains are propelled back to the station with the guard in the front cab, with brake and horn to hand.

Diesel duties were handled by a "Thumper" DEMU.

Other stock was an ecclectic mix with some small Diesel shunters, coaches and multiple unit trailer carriages in various states of repair, a selection of wagons, and this unusual Wickham railcar from British Rail Research.

The train ride out and back only takes about 20 minutes, but a ticket allows multiple rides (so we tried both trains), and the kids rode the miniature railway too, so we were occupied for a couple of hours. It's a very welcoming place, with kids invited onto the footplate to get close to the controls, though my daughter was rather wary of the big fire!

Just a few miles along the road the Bluebell Railway is a much better known line, and this week has perhaps the most famous loco of them all visiting - The Flying Scotsman. We hadn't planned to visit but we happened to be passing... though the price of a platform ticket was more than a day rover ticket on the Lavender Line! Still, my Son wanted to see his favourite loco, and it turned out hundreds of other's hadn't been put off either.

So we got up close, but decent photograph opportunities from the crowded platform were pretty limited. It didn't help that it's train was two coaches longer than the platform, and it entered the station tender first.

In fact we found the most dramatic views were from the picnic area below the line, where we got a good view of it departing.

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Welcome to my Blog

If you are interested in model railways, particularly in narrow gauge, or small (micro) layouts, then I hope you will find this site interesting. I try to update it periodically with news of my current models and layouts, and anything else model-railway related (and sometimes not!). I usually model in 009 scale (1:76 or 4mm/ft using 9mm gauge track), although I have recently dabbled in 014 (1:43 or 7mm/ft on 14mm gauge track) as well. For more on my current and past layouts click the the links to the pages below. If you have any comments or feedback, do let me know!

About Me

I have been building model railways since I was a teenager, mostly in 009 scale though I have also worked in 00, and more recently 014.
I am a member of the 009 society (which is highly reccommended if you model in 009 or similar) and of the local area group of the society in Sussex, the Sussex Downs group.
Away from model railways, I am a chartered engineer working in the automotive industry, I am married with two small children to occupy most of my free time, and I am involved in the PA and technical things at my church. So I don't get a lot of time for model railway building!